Selissen, Micelli Push Bill To Honor First Responders

Dec 24, 2014 10:50AM
● Published by Bill Gilman

If Tewksbury Town Moderator Jerry Selissen and state Rep. Jim Miceli, D-Wilmington, have their way, Massachusetts will soon have a special day set aside to honor first responders such as police officers, firefighters and emergency medical personnel.Selissen came up with the idea in light of the recent wave of negative feelings toward police officers and the murder of NYC officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu on Saturday. He suggested the idea to Miceli, who has promised to file a bill in the next legislative session."If we go back to 9/11 and what happened and how we developed tremendous respect for first responders, if you move ahead 13 years, I'm very disappointed with how things have changed," Selissen told The Lowell Sun. "I think we need to take a giant step backwards and realize that on a day-to-day basis our first responders do an outstanding job."The issue touches close to home for Miceli. In April, 2013, MIT Police Officer Sean Collier, a resident of Wilmington, was murdered as he sat in his cruiser, allegedly by Boston Marathon bombing suspects Dzhokhar and Tamerian Tsarnaev. Miceli told the Lowell Sun that there has been "misplaced animosity" toward police officers in recent months and first responders need to be appreciated for the dangerous and heroic work they do.Miceli also told the Sun he expects overwhelming support in the Legislature for the bill.

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